Groundbreaking set for $70M hotel in Hub’s Seaport District

Norwich Partners of Vermont is planning to break ground later this month on a $70 million boutique hotel at the site of an existing parking lot in Boston’s Seaport District.

The 100,000-square-foot Envoy Hotel, to be built at 66 Sleeper St., is slated to include 136 luxury guest rooms as well as a restaurant and bar. The plan also calls for a public roof deck with a bar and lounge that will offer city views. It will be located across the street from the John Joseph Moakley federal court house and the Barking Crab restaurant.

FPC Hotel LLC, an entity of Norwich Partners, bought the 16,910-square-foot lot in 2011 for $8.99 million. In August, Norwich borrowed $38.5 million from RBS Citizens NA to build the 6-story project.

R. G. Vanderweil Engineers LLP, a Boston-based engineering firm, is collaborating with Boston architects Group One Partners and ADD Inc. on the hotel’s design.

The groundbreaking is planned for Friday, Oct. 25, and the hotel is scheduled to open in the spring of 2015.

The move comes amid an uptick in hotel development in the Seaport District. Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority selected CV Properties, a division of Commonwealth Ventures, to build a pair of hotels across from the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in South Boston. Commonwealth Ventures, together with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide (NYSE: HOT), are planning a 330‐room Aloft hotel and a 180‐room Element hotel. The two hotels will contain a total of 510 rooms and will be built on land acquired by the MCCA last fall.